“Welcome Home: A Place Where You Can Be Yourself”

Sermon delivered by Pastor Finn Sunday, November 3, 2019 WELCOME HOME (Week 2)

Text: “Welcome Home: Where You Are Free To Be Yourself”

We’re back in our “Welcome Home” series today. Last week we focused on how God sent His Son, Jesus, to become our Brother, to bring us into his family. Today we want to see our church home as a place where you’re free to be yourself.

So what does that mean…free to be yourself. There’s a lot of confusion these days about what true freedom really is, especially here in America. For many freedom means the ability to do whatever you want.

Christianity with all its rules and limitations seems more like slavery to them than freedom—can’t drink too much, can’t get high, can’t spend my money the way I want, or have sex before marriage…can’t watch whatever I want on TV or look at whatever I want on my phone…that doesn’t sound a lot like fun at all. It makes me think of the old Billy Joel song that said, “I’d rather laugh with the sinners than die with the saints, cuz sinners are much more fun.”

Freedom, here in America, is usually viewed as the freedom to do whatever you want. The old evil foe we sang about in the hymn--who “now means deadly woe”--he has so deceived people that they can’t even imagine God’s will and happiness going together at all. Unfortunately, apart from God’s grace, free to be yourself is only the freedom to follow your sinful nature. But that’s not anything we’d really call freedom, is it? What did Jesus say? “The soul that sins is a slave to sin.”

Some of the most important words Martin Luther ever wrote in his Small Catechism were these ones when he said, “I believe that I cannot by my own thinking or choosing believe in Jesus Christ my Lord, or come to him.”

If “free to be ourselves,” means only the freedom to be what we are by nature, then we’re the worst kind of slaves of all—by nature we prefer the shackles of sin—we don’t want to do God’s will, cuz that’s no fun.

On this Festival of the Reformation, what we’re really celebrating is the way that God’s powerful Word sets our hearts free from sin and enables us to finally be free to live the lives God intended us to live. When and how does this happen?

In short, God makes this happen by his powerful Word. Throughout the Book of Jeremiah (and also everything in Luther’s writings), you this phrase again and again, everywhere: “Thus says the Lord.” You see that phrase several times already just in this chapter. “Thus says the Lord.” Without God’s Word, there is no church. There is no people. There is no such things as a place we call our church home or any kind of life worth living. Only slavery to sin.

And it leaves God absolutely beside himself with grief and righteous indignation—He’s absolutely beside himself because of the way he did everything for his people—he was absolutely faithful to them, and yet, despite it all, they chose to be unfaithful to him.

You see this in the verses before us. “Though I was a husband to them!” Even though God led them out of slavery in Egypt and brought them to Sinai—there he entered into a special covenant relationship with them. A covenant is a promise or an agreement. He hadn’t chosen to do this with any other nation—and it wasn’t as though they were somehow special and deserved this treatment either—they were a stiff-necked and rebellious people, like all the rest—yet in his grace he had chosen them (much like he has chosen us and made us his own in Holy Baptism—more of that in a little bit)—but here at Sinai, God made a solemn promise that He would continue to be their God and they would be his people—the only condition he placed on that was this—if you love me, keep my commandments—then I will be your God always, and you will continue to be my people.

But even after God had done everything for them, even though he was like a husband to them, and promised to bring them into a good and spacious land, where the Savior would come--they still broke God’s covenant. Even before the ink was even dry on that agreement, the Israelites proved themselves unfaithful--even before Moses got down from Mt. Sinai - with the 1st Commandment glaring out, “YOU SHALL HAVE NO OTHER GODS,” the Israelites were down on the bottom of the mountain worshiping a golden calf.

It’s a sad story indeed. Sound familiar? This old covenant that God is talking about--it should not seem that foreign to us. God has given us his Ten Commandments with the same threats and promises attached to them for us. In Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and throughout the Bible—He expounds on his holy Law--He gets us to see what our relationship with Him is supposed to be like—He’s been like a husband to us, setting us free from the slavery to sin by our connection to his cross through our Baptism—we’re to be His submissive wife—we’re supposed to treat Him like our King of kings and Lord of lords, willingly obeying him and not doing anything without His permission. But when Jesus talks about lusting, hating, and turning the other cheek--we blush as if we’d been caught in the act—playing around with sin like we do, we deserve to be cut off without ever having the chance to be brought back to him and to live life as He meant it for us, but instead to suffer forever in His judgment in hell.

But then God comes with his powerful Word and says, () “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. …“For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

What a miracle of God’s power and grace when he announces the terms of this new covenant with his people—Instead of showing them what they are to do, God promises to do it all—this kind of covenant was unheard of in the ancient world—it’s a completely one-sided agreement--Instead of leaving the knowledge and obedience of the law dependent in the actions of the Israelites - God said that He would put His law in their minds and write it on their hearts. He would fill them with a seeming “natural knowledge” of Him. With this new knowledge, everyone from the least to the greatest of them would naturally know God’s law in their minds and their hearts and they would do it—and they would share this knowledge with their neighbor!

What a strange covenant indeed! Whoever heard of knowing God’s law without studying it? Whoever heard of being able to have God’s law in our hearts without inviting God into the heart? How can God just declare that “I will be their God and they will be my people!” Notice in all of these declarations, the Israelites have no choice in the matter. This is the way it is going to be! This is offensive to a majority of people. They want a free choice in the matter - and here God makes them out to be helpless - mere recipients in this new covenant. It makes it seem as if God forces Himself into the heart and the mind off a hapless people - and climbs into her heart and mind - She has no choice in the matter!

It’s all by grace. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

It’s like Martin Luther explained in his Catechism, “The Holy Spirit has called me by the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts and sanctified me in the true faith.” What a simple way of describing God’s covenant love in action—

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We’re back in our “Welcome Home” series today. Last week we focused on how God sent Jesus to become our Brother, to bring us into his family. Today we want to see our church as a place where you’re free to be yourself.

Welcome Home. Today we want to see our church as a place where you’re free to be yourself.

There’s a lot of confusion out there about what freedom really is, especially in America. Freedom is usually viewed as the ability to do whatever you want. Christianity with all its rules and limitations seems more like slavery than freedom—can’t drink too much, can’t get high, can’t spend my money the way I want, or have sex before marriage? Can’t watch whatever I want on TV or look at whatever I want on my phone? That doesn’t sound a lot like fun at all. It makes me think of the old Billy Joel song that said, “I’d rather laugh with the sinners than die with the saints, cuz sinners are much more fun.”

Christianity with all its rules and limitations seems more like slavery than freedom—can’t drink too much, can’t get high, can’t spend my money the way I want, or have sex before marriage? Can’t watch whatever I want on TV Or look at whatever I want on my phone? That doesn’t sound a lot like fun at all. Remember that old Billy Joel song that said, “I’d rather laugh with the sinners than die with the saints, cuz sinners are much more fun.”

has deceived the whole world (including you and me at one time or another) into thinking that happiness is found not in holiness of living but rather in sin. Remember that old Billy Joel song that said, “I’d rather laugh with the sinners than die with the saints, cuz sinners are much more fun.”

can’t have sex before marriage, and have to remain faithful to that one person all my life? Can’t get high?

The old evil foe we sang about in the hymn, who “now means deadly woe,” has people so deceived sometimes that they can’t imagine holiness and happiness going together at all. Remember that old Billy Joel song that said, “I’d rather laugh with the sinners than die with the saints, cuz sinners are much more fun.”

The old evil foe we sang about in the hymn--who “now means deadly woe”--he has so deceived people that they can’t even imagine holiness and happiness going together at all. But what did we hear Jesus say earlier? “The souls that sins is a slave to sin.” Slavery is when you can’t do what you want, go where you want, or do what you want. Your whole life is determined by someone else.

Remember that old Billy Joel song that said, “I’d rather laugh with the sinners than die with the saints, cuz sinners are much more fun.”

The question is: who’s really free out there? Is any life outside of Christ really free?

Money and sex bring temporary happiness, but nothing more than that, and usually a lot of unintended problems and emptiness. Revenge never satifies.

L’ook into the eyes of an alcoholic or drug addict and ask how badly That person does not want to do what he is doing. The ability to make that choice in nowhere in them. That’s not freedom. What we may not realize though, is that you may as well be looking into the eyes of any sinner. You try it sometime. Try not lusting. Try not craving, competing or pretending. We’re not able to walk away from selfishness and self-centeredness. We can’t not stop disappointing the people we love or despising the people we don’t think we need. We think we can stop sinning any time we want…until we try.

If “free to be ourselves,” means only the freedom to be what we are by nature, then I’m not sure I’d call that freedom—and outside of faith in Jesus Christ t is there anything we might really call freedom at all?!

But is life anywhere outside of Christ And his holiness really free at all?

Free to be who we are

In God’s Word today, the prophet Jeremiah has good news for us. When God works his changes in our hearts through the Good News about Jesus, is sets us free to be who God really Intended us to be and to live as he really intended us to live. Welcome Home, to a place you are truly free to be who you are.

Earlier in his book, Jeremiah wrote, (Jer.17:9) “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”

On this Festival of the Reformation, what we’re really celebrating is the way that God’s powerful Word sets our hearts free from sin. Redeemed by Christ we are brought into his kingdom of grace where we are finally free to be who he intended us to be. Jeremiah’s life and ministry is an example of that, and so is the life ofeach and every believer.

God came to Jeremiah and said, () “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

Here in the Book of Jeremiah today, On this Festival of the Reformation, what we’re really celebrating is the way that God’s powerful Word sets our hearts free from sin.

nded us to be and to live as he really intended us to live. Welcome Home, to a place you are truly free to be who you are. Outside of faith in Jesus Christ t is there anything we might really call free at all?

Jeremiah’s life and ministry is an example of that, and so is the life and God came to Jeremiah and said, () “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

Jeremiah was a prophet to God’s people about 600 or so years before Christ. God came to Jeremiah and said, (Jer 1:5) “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

“Before I formed you,” God said to Jeremiah, I had something in mind for you. The day you were born was no mishap; none of it was by chance. Whether you were planned or you were an “oops,” long before you were ever conceived in the womb of your mother, you were conceived in the mind of God. Ultimately, his purpose in forming you was to adopt you, to bring you into his family of believers, through faith in Jesus Christ so that you might live to his glory!

When God rescued his OT people from slavery in Egypt he compared it to a marriage. He was like a husband to them; they were like his bride. At Mt Sinai he entered into a covenant with them. A covenant is a promise or an agreement. These were the terms of that marriage agreement: God said, “If you keep my commands, then I will continue to be your God and you will be my people.” It didn’t take them long before they broke that convenant.

But like I said before, holiness doesn’t seem like a lot of fun.

Prophets had one job to do—you can sum up their work in four words--”Thus says the Lord!”

But sin never leads to lasting happiness. Too much drinking brings a hangover. Over-indulgeance in anything usually leads to hospitalization and an early grave. Money and sex bring temporary happiness, but also a lot of unintended problems and emptiness. Driving too fast gets you a ticket.

And yet, we can’t just blame the devil for our unhappiness.

Sinful expressions in art, in movies, in music, are really a reflection of our sinful culture. Art immitates culture.

Before the ink was even dry on that agreement, the Israelites proved themselves to be unfaithful. Even before Moses got down from Mt. Sinai - with the 1st Commandment glaring out, “YOU SHALL HAVE NO OTHER GODS,” the Israelites were down on the bottom of the mountain worshiping a golden calf. Later when the next generation was entering the Promised Land, Joshua said, “You are not able to serve the LORD. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you.” But the people said to Joshua, “No! We will serve the LORD.” Then Joshua said, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the LORD.” “Yes, we are witnesses,” they replied.

Words were easy. It only took one generation for the Israelites to start going astray. Things went from bad to worse. When you read through the book of Judges, and Kings--what happened under Solomon, Jeroboam and the rest--it’s a sad story indeed. So Jeremiah came once again to warn this unfaithful prostitute of a people of what was happening. A Babylonian Captivity was imminent. He reminds them, “They broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them.” God had done everything He promised to do--but THEY didn’t. This Captivity to come was exactly what they deserved for not learning His law or living by it. The old covenant was coming to an end because the Israelites cheated on God.

This covenant that God is talking about - it should not seem that foreign to us. In Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and throughout the Bible - as God expounds on the Law - He gets us to see that our relationship to God is supposed to be the same as the Old Testament Israelites. We realize that we are supposed to be His submissive wife - treating Him like our King and not doing anything without His permission. When Jesus talks about lusting, hating, and turning the other cheek - we blush as if we’d been caught at least flirting with another man that is not our husband.

But Jesus tells us today that only the Son sets you free. Sin shackles. Jesus saves. () “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus…through the shedding of his blood.”

Later when the next generation was entering the Promised Land, Joshua said, “You are not able to serve the LORD. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you.” But the people said to Joshua, “No! We will serve the LORD.” Then Joshua said, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the LORD.” “Yes, we are witnesses,” they replied.

Jesus has set us free from sin, and when he sets us free, he sets us free for something. In the OT Lesson from Jeremiah, let’s see what free to be yourself really means. It starts when God changes hearts, and it’s

But there’s one problem with that. Earlier in his book, the prophet Jeremiah wrote, (Jer.17:9) “The human heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure, who can understand it?”

That’s what we are by nature. Born in sin we are not free to live As God designed us to.

And so before Jeremiah, or the people he served, or you and me can serve God and live to his glory, we need him to change our hearts.

That’s not what most people think when they hear God’s Word, is it? Instead of giving freedom, they see it as something that will take their freedom away. Don’t we Christians sometimes think that? I mean wouldn’t life be so much more fun and easy if we didn’t have to follow the Ten Commandments or love our neighbor as ourselves? The truth is just the opposite. Ignoring God’s Word causes us to lose our freedom. Think of it this way. When you see a rock climber all roped up for a climb, do you think of that person as having been enslaved? No, you think about the freedom that person will enjoy exploring the rock face. Sure you can climb without harness and rope but do you think those who “free-climb” are really free? I don’t. They may be free of their harness and ropes but they’re not free of the nagging fear of what happens when they slip. Without a harness and a rope to catch them, they just might fall to their death. The truth is the proper equipment allows a climber to go higher and over terrain that would otherwise be impossible.

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Coming into the world that’s all we’re free to be, Jeremiah says, sinful beyond cure. Understanding who you are and celebrating what God’s made of us by his grace starts there.

I’d like you to take out your church bulletin for a moment, or the hymnal, anything with words printed on it, and I want you scan across the page, any page until you find the letter “i” somewhere there.

Imagine yourself being that size at one point in your mother’s womb. Actually you were smaller than that—you may be 5’10” or so right now, but back then, just after conception, they measured you in microns, not inches—early on you’re about 100 microns in length—that’s smaller than the dot on a letter “i.”

Your body right now is composed of tens of trillions cells—that’s 10,000 times the world’s population—and yet all the information needed to direct the organization and development of those tens of trillions of cells was all engineered by God into that one tiny cell that was you at conception.

Your body right now is composed of tens of trillions cells—that’s 10,000 times the world’s population—and yet all the information needed to direct the organization and development of those tens of trillions of cells was all engineered by God into that one tiny little cell that was you at conception. All your talents and abilities. All your potential, all your future interests and quirky personality traits—it was all there. Three weeks into your life in the womb, your heart started to beat (about the same time mommy begins to suspect that she’s pregnant). Your heart, as it turns out, is the very first organ to form in your body. Makes sense right? The heart is needed to pump life-giving blood that delivers oxygen and nutrients and removes waste products from your developing cells. It’s fascinating actually, the early embryonic heart starts out as a tiny, pulsating tube, not at all resembling the adult heart with its four different chambers, valves and vessels.

The day you were born was no mishap, and none of it was just by chance. You might have been planned or you might have been an “oops!” but long before you were ever conceived in the womb of your mother, you were conceived in the mind of God. The Lord told the prophet Jeremiah, () “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

Three weeks into your life in the womb, your heart is starting to beat (about the same time mommy begins to suspect that she’s pregnant). Your heart, as it turns out, is the very first organ to form in your body. Makes sense right? The heart is needed to pump life-giving blood that delivers oxygen and nutrients and removes waste products from your developing cells. It’s fascinating actually, the early embryonic heart starts out as a tiny, pulsating tube, not at all resembling the adult heart with its four different chambers, valves and vessels.

As important as the heart is to the body, God assigns a spiritual significance to the heart. Listen to these passages about the heart. The psalmist says, (Deut 6:5) “Love the Lord your God with all your heart.” He prayed, (Ps.86:11) “Give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.” And (Ps.27:19) “As water reflects a person’s face, so a person’s heart reflects the person.” (Prov.4:23) “Above all else,” Solomon warned, “guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”

By the way, if you had to guess, which organ of your body do you think is the first one to form? The brain? The skeleton? Skin? It’s the heart. Makes sense. The heart is needed to pump life-giving blood that delivers live-giving oxygen and nutrients and removes waste products from developing cells in the embryo. It’s interesting, the early embryonic heart starts out as a tiny, pulsating tube, not resembling the adult at all with its four different chambers, valves and vessels. Already at three weeks, by the way, a heartbeat can be detected (about the same time mommy begins to suspect that she is pregnant).

Listen to these passages with the human heart in mind. The psalmist says, (Deut 6:5) “Love the Lord your God with all your heart.” He prayed, (Ps.86:11) “Give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.” And (Ps.27:19) “As water reflects a person’s face, so a person’s heart reflects the person.” (Prov.4:23) “Above all else,” Solomon warned, “guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”

(Deut 6:5) “Love the Lord your God with all your heart.”

() “Give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.”

From a functional perspective, it makes sense that the heart is the first one to form. The heart is needed to pump life-giving blood that delivers live-giving oxygen and nutrients and removes waste products from developing cells in the embryo.

(Prov.4:23) “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”

Along with all its importance to you physically, scripture also assigns a spiritual significance to the heart. The psalmist says, () “Love the Lord your God with all your heart.” He prayed, () “Give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.” And (Ps.27:19) “As water reflects a person’s face, so a person’s heart reflects the person.” () “Above all else,” Solomon warned, “guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”

() “It is with your heart that you believe and are justified.”

I read a fascinating article recently about how the heart slowly forms inside of you during your development in the womb...

Then there's this favorite passage of mine from the psalms () “I will run in the paths of your commands, for you have set my heart free.”

Long before you were ever conceived in the womb of your mother, you were conceived in the mind of God. The Lord told the prophet Jeremiah, () “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

“It is in his Word that God warms and brings to life our dead, stone cold, and doomed hearts so that we embrace Jesus and his cross in faith for our salvation. Yes, it is God’s Word by which God builds his house of faith, apart from and outside of which there is no salvation. Where “thus says the LORD” is absent, we should not expect to find his house.”

Paul wrote to the Romans saying, () “It is with your heart that you believe and are justified.”

Your heart represents the real you—what you truly are, not what others think you are, or what circumstances force you to be

One of my favorite Bible passages is this one from (Ps 119:32). I will run in the paths of your commands, for you have set my heart free.”

I’d like to think about that kind of freedom today—the kind of freedom that allows you to live for God and serve him from the heart—the freedom to really be yourself

By the way, if you had to guess, which organ of your body do you think is the first one to form? The brain? The skeleton? Skin? It’s the heart. Already at three weeks, by the way, a heartbeat can be detected

Last week in our “Welcome Home” series, we focused on how God sent Jesus to become our Brother, to bring us into his family. Today, let’s see this place, God’s Church, as a place where you’re free to be yourself.

Maybe that’s why God chose to make the heart first.

But sin never leads to lasting happiness. Too much drinking brings a hangover. Over-indulgeance in anything usually leads to hospitalization and an early grave. Money and sex bring temporary happiness, but also a lot of unintended problems and emptiness. Driving too fast gets you a ticket.

And yet, we can’t just blame the devil for our unhappiness.

Listen to what God said to the prophet Jeremiah, (Jer 1:5) “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

Listen to what God said to the prophet Jeremiah,

Sinful expressions in art, in movies, in music, are really a reflection of our sinful culture. Art immitates culture.

But Jesus tells us today that only the Son sets you free. Sin shackles. Jesus saves. () “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus…through the shedding of his blood.”

“Before I formed you,” God said to Jeremiah, I had something in mind for you. The day you were born was no mishap; none of it was by chance. Whether you were planned or you were an “oops,” long before you were ever conceived in the womb of your mother, you were conceived in the mind of God. Ultimately, his purpose in forming you was to adopt you, to bring you into his family of believers, through faith in Jesus Christ.

Jesus has set us free from sin, and when he sets us free, he sets us free for something. In the OT Lesson from Jeremiah, let’s see what free to be yourself really means. It starts when God changes hearts, and it’s

That’s not what most people think when they hear God’s Word, is it? Instead of giving freedom, they see it as something that will take their freedom away. Don’t we Christians sometimes think that? I mean wouldn’t life be so much more fun and easy if we didn’t have to follow the Ten Commandments or love our neighbor as ourselves? The truth is just the opposite. Ignoring God’s Word causes us to lose our freedom. Think of it this way. When you see a rock climber all roped up for a climb, do you think of that person as having been enslaved? No, you think about the freedom that person will enjoy exploring the rock face. Sure you can climb without harness and rope but do you think those who “free-climb” are really free? I don’t. They may be free of their harness and ropes but they’re not free of the nagging fear of what happens when they slip. Without a harness and a rope to catch them, they just might fall to their death. The truth is the proper equipment allows a climber to go higher and over terrain that would otherwise be impossible.

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I wonder if that’s also why God chose to make the heart first, before all the other organs. When we talk about all the the important things, we say it comes from in here. A person tries really hard without giving up and we say he “has a lot of heart.” When something’s important, you “Put your heart into it.” You tell your spouse, “I love you with all my heart.”

When it comes to the important stuff, we say it comes from in here. A person tries really hard without giving up and we say he “has a lot of heart.” When something’s important, you “Put your heart into it.” You tell your spouse, “I love you with all my heart.”

When someone tries really hard without giving up, we say that person “has a lot of heart.” When something’s important, you “Put your heart into it.” Or you tell your spouse, “I love you with all my heart.”

the source of your motivations. A person tries really hard without giving up and we say he “has a lot of heart.” When something’s important, you “Put your heart into it.” You tell your spouse, “I love you with all my heart.”

() “He has also set eternity in the human heart.”

() “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”

() “He has also set eternity in the human heart.”

Through the prophet Jeremiah, God said about his people, (Jer.31:33) “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.”

But is life anywhere outside of Christ And his holiness really free at all?

“Before I formed you,” God said to Jeremiah, I had something in mind for you. The day you were born was no mishap; none of it was by chance. Whether you were planned or you were an “oops,” long before you were ever conceived in the womb of your mother, you were conceived in the mind of God. Ultimately, his purpose in forming you was to adopt you, to bring you into his family of believers, through faith in Jesus Christ.

() “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he[a] predestined us for adoption to sonship[b] through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—

In his letter to the Ephesians, God says his purpose in creating and fashioning you in your mother’s womb, was sonship--() “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.”

God Advances in developmental biology have given us a window into some of the most amazing handiwork of the Lord In creating and forming you.

Ultimately, God’s purpose in forming you was to adopt you, to bring you into his family of believers, through faith in Jesus Christ. Last week in our “Welcome Home” series, we focused on how God sent Jesus to become our Brother, to bring us into his family. Today, let’s see this place, God’s Church, as a place where you’re free to be yourself

Last week in our “Welcome Home” series, we focused on how God sent Jesus to become our Brother, to bring us into his family. Today, let’s see this place, God’s Church, as a place where you’re free to be yourself.

Listen to what God said to his people, Israel, through the Jeremiah. (,) “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord.”

, - “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,”bdeclares the Lord.”

A covenant is a promise, like the one you made to your spouse on your wedding day. “I promise to be faithful to you, as long as we both shall live.” God was always faithful to his people, and he laid out the terms for their faithfulness to him in the Covenent of the Law given at Mt Sinai. Just after saving them from slavery in Egypt, he said to them, “If you keep my commands then I will be your God and you will be my people.”

Think of what Martin Luther says for each of the Ten Commandments. “We should fear and love God that...”

many times compares his relationship to his people as a marriage.

What would you do if your spouse was unfaithful to you?

based upon agreed upon actions. Your credit card is something like a covenant, an agreement between you and the credit card company...

Again in our text mention is made of God’s covenant with his people. A covenant is a promise based upon agreed upon actions. Your credit card is something like a covenant, an agreement between you and the credit card company...

“It is in his Word that God warms and brings to life our dead, stone cold, and doomed hearts so that we embrace Jesus and his cross in faith for our salvation.”

“Where “thus says the LORD” is absent, we should not expect to find his house.”

In his letter to the Ephesians, God says his purpose in creating and fashioning you in your mother’s womb, was sonship--() “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.”

God never does anything accidentally, and he never makes mistakes. He has a reason for everything he creates. Every plant and every animal was planned by God, and every person was designed with a purpose in mind.

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— On Giving Advice to God, Part 2: Devotions on the Wisdom of God and the Foolishness of Man by Daniel M. Deutschlander

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